Report #2 from Glenn Randall at Junior World Championships, 2005

 

Two days after the pursuit, I watched the sprint. It was fairly exciting with three guys qualifying for the rounds. Then, I began to prepare for the 10km freestyle two days later.

The 10km was an interval start, with one person starting every 30 seconds. The course was not crowded, as the race was on a 10km loop.

From the start of my race, I felt ok. I didn’t feel too great, but I had confidence that I would soon find my race and speed up. Also, it did not seem like people ahead of me were gaining too much.

About two kilometers into the race, I came to a sharp corner. This corner had been in good conditions the entire week, so I was used to skiing it very aggressively. This section of the course had been closed for the women’s race while I had warmed up, so I had no idea that the corner had almost a foot of sugar snow due to the women racers and the men racers who had gone by already. I lost balance during the corner and fell. I was soon passed by the guy who had started behind me, a 16-year-old Canadian, I soon found out.

The next 3km went by without a lot happening. I stayed close to the Canadian. Then, about 6km into the race, I started to be passed by skiers from former East Bloc countries. I was passed by two or three of these skiers. After I finished, I was disappointed, but felt that I had done my best and skied very hard.

The next day, I watched the relay. Although our men struggled, it was still an exciting race. It was a good chance to meet people from other countries and cheer on many of the friends I had made during the week.

Overall, I feel that Junior World Championships was a very good experience for me. I know that racing in Rovaniemi will help me in the future, and that many of the people that I met will become lifelong friends. I also saw that Europeans are not as scary as they may seem. They are very nice, and are not impossible to beat.